Archived legal documents, personal letters, ephemera, photographs, diaries, and artwork. Historical societies’ collections create a lens into the past—offering insight into how communities have been, over time, shaped by their residents and major events.
On a recent visit to the Andover Historical Society, I had the pleasure of meeting programs manager Carrie Midura. An English literature major in college, she has always had a passion for history, and her effusive enthusiasm permeates the antique space.
She shared artifacts and images of various stages of Andover’s history—war paraphernalia, old maps, and historical letters. I was intrigued by the vast collection that the historical society houses, which includes historical textiles, kitchen items, and farm equipment, among a host of historical works of art.
Founded in 1911 by a small group wanting to retain items of historical value to the town, the society found its permanent home when member Caroline Underhill donated the Amos Blanchard House—a handsome 1825 Federal-style house on Main Street—as the society’s headquarters in 1929.
While I was looking over all these wonderful decades-old items, Midura—white gloved—produced beautiful costume designs by a local artist, who had lived in Andover at the turn of the 20th century. The watercolor style was distinctly from a bygone era. Midura explained that the designs were by H. Winthrop Peirce, a painter and illustrator born in 1850 who lived in Andover on Morton Street.
The illustrations intrigued Midura, as much as they intrigued me. Midura once had her own costume design company, and these particular items held special meaning for her. She had come across them in the climate-controlled storage space in the basement of the museum, which is burgeoning with more than 50,000 items from Andover’s past. She decided to research this artist and learn more about who he was and how he was important to the town.
“From 1911 until World War II, the society put on plays, musicals, and pageants,” notes Midura. “And Peirce was a large part of that.” He founded a community theatre in 1914 in Andover and designed programs and costumes for the troop called the “Barnstormers.” The theatre company’s proceeds were to benefit the Commission for Relief in Belgium founded by Herbert Hoover, which aided in the food shortages the country was experiencing during World War I.
He produced a number of watercolor costume drawings for pageants throughout this time, including “A Dream of Fair Women of the Past,” presented by the Lawrence Woman’s Club/Universalist Church Vestry, as well as “The Shakespeare Festival,” “At the End of the Rainbow,” and “Masque of the Muses,” which were all held in Andover.
Midura went on to explain that this artist was not only a prominent member of Andover’s society but was also a prolific artist in the early 20th century. Peirce was a member of the first graduating class of the first art school at the Museum of Fine Arts in 1876. He also studied in Paris.
Upon his return to Boston, he became a member and then president of the Copley Society, as well as a member and president of the Boston Society of Water Color Painters. He became a prolific artist who worked in several mediums—watercolor, pen and ink, and oil. In 1891, he even illustrated a book by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow titled A Psalm of Life. He lectured, wrote on art topics, and designed a large number of pageants, festivals, and fairs for Andover, Boston, and elsewhere. He also helped establish the North Shore Arts Association in 1922.
His paintings appeared in many museums and collections throughout the country. He was an authority on the history of costume, and hundreds of his colored drawings are preserved at Rollins College in Florida. He also exhibited his work at the John Ester Gallery at the Abbott Academy (now part of Phillips Academy) during his lifetime. And up until his death in 1935, at age 85, he had been vice president of the Copley Society.
Peirce’s grandson, who once lived in Virginia, wanted to learn more about his famous grandfather’s life and found the society through a Google search. “The grandson came to share with us paintings of his grandfather’s work, and we were able to share not only the costume designs but also a pen and ink drawing of the historical society and an oil painting titled Rose Cottage both by Peirce,” notes Midura.
The mission of the society is to share unique stories of Andover through its museum, library, archives,exhibitions, publications, and programs. “By active involvement, the society fosters a strong community that knows its history and values what it inherits,” notes executive director Elaine Clements. And the Andover Historical Society is passing on that legacy to a new generation. andoverhistoricalsociety.org